Friday, August 31, 2007

Craft room! eeeeeeee!



Isn't that a beautiful sight??? Ok, so the whiteness and plasticness of it all isn't super inspiring, but holy crap I love having a craft room! I am secretly plotting a mural to paint on the wall, which should be a really nice touch, if it turns out. That probably won't be for another couple months...

In the picture, I am working on the curtains for the living room. Here is a handy hint: If you ever think that you should make curtains because it would be stupid to buy them since after all it's only a piece of fabric with some hems- don't do it. I have only finished one and a half (out of about 7) in the past week. That one looks fantastic hanging up, though! Then again, there is a piece of fabric that I've attached to the curtain rod with safety pins that looks just as good! I'll post pix when I finish more of them. Notice the Sex and the City DVD playing on my computer.

As I was organizing the craft room, I came across this, one of first things I really ever knit. Ok, I can't actually remember what the official first thing I ever knit was, but this I started in sometime in high school, so it's up there. I think it's intended to be a baby blanket. I have absolutely no intention to ever finish it. The yarn is from my grandma. She gave me a whole box of colorful yarn when I told her I'd taken up knitting!

I am pretty proud of the fact that I figured out how to do the pattern with the purl stitches. Switching between knitting and purling was practically the first thing I decided to learn, once I'd figured out about needles and things. I remember being blown away by the fact that by making a "backward" knit stitch you could add so much dimension to a piece. It helps that I (apparently) figured out how to knit continental, not english, which makes for easier knit/purl switching I think. I learned to knit by looking at badly hand drawn pictures of bodyless hands making stitches, so I really had no idea what the *right* way to hold anything was. I think I turned out ok as a knitter though!

The only problem? I didn't know which part of a stitch to stick the needle into to make a knit stitch. I knit every single row in this thing through the back loop! So every other row has twisted stitches! Thankfully, I've since figured out better ways to do it! Check out this beautiful detail:


In other news, our house is (very) slowly turning into a home. Despite some (aaaaaaaugh!!!!!!) flooding in our basement, I still think this space is so cozy, and I love hanging out down there. It could just be that the craft room is in the basement... The carpet is all torn up, because we were trying to get it to dry out and checking for mold and no one's been back to fix it (grrrrr). I did my best to cover up the carpet, and move all the furniture back to take these pictures, though. My favorite thing is the pictures of Oregon on the wall. We were going for a kind of "winter at a mountain lodge" kind of thing, and somehow I think our old inherited furniture pulls it off!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Eyeball Yarn

This is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Friday, August 24, 2007

I'm sick of storms

But isn't this an awesome picture Seany took?

It's beautiful, but holy cucumbers, it needs to stop raining around here!!! The weather radio has been freaking out every couple hours for the past 3 weeks. Flash floods! Severe thunderstorms! Tornadoes! Enough already! Today's rain so far is nice and steady and non-thunderstormy. It kind of feels like home, which I appreciate. Maybe I can get away with a handknit sweater today! It's probably gonna be in the 90's (ºF) today, but our lab is always cold!

In other news... I haven't done much crafting lately, unless you count interior decorating (which I kind of do!) I started a new, bright pink preemie hat at knit night on Tuesday. I am trying to make up a cable pattern, and I was trying to talk to people, and I was trying to figure out how to cable without a cable needle, so I didn't get very far. It should be cute when I finish though!

I think I am going to start taking karate again. I need some kind of structured work out and some people to hang out with, plus I totally miss karate. I would have to save Grey's Anatomy for Friday's though!!!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Ikea furniture

Sean went to Chicago for some reason yesterday, so I made him stop at Ikea to get us some furniture. So that means our weekend will be spent swearing and trying to figure out how to screw part F into leg W using bolt Q or something like that. I am so excited, though! I had only seen any of it online, so I am still not sure what it will look like in real life. The mirror is freaking HUGE! I can't believe Sean drive all the way from Chicago with it in his car!



These are the part I really was looking for when I found these, cuz right now I am using a step ladder for a night stand, and I have to keep taking everything off when I paint another room. It's kinda inconvenient. But of course, they were out of stock at the Chicago store. Hmm.


I can't wait to see what they look like in our room! I think they will make the green less super-happy-cheerful and more calm and relaxing.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

UIHC Craft Fair

Today was craft/ bake sale at the hospital for The Preemie Project day! Woohoo!! Only I didn't get a chance to make anything, so I suck. After wandering around the hospital for a good 15 minutes after lunch (that place is huge!!! And it has good lunch!) I found the sale. There was tons of stuff! So many people worked really hard to make all of the crafts and food. I feel bad for not making anything, but I did buy something! I have been meaning to make a knitting needle case for all my loose double pointeds and my circulars, but I haven't gotten around to it. So when I saw this needle case, I knew I had to get it. I wanted to get a cookbook, too, but I only had $13, and I wanted the needle case more. Maybe someone will let me buy one soon even if it's not at a crafts sale?? Isn't it cute? I got too excited to wait till I got home, so these are mac photobooth pictures taken with the laptop webcam, which are not exactly the highest quality. It's a good camera, but holding my laptop over my head to get the perfect angle is not great. Someone at my husband's work held a laptop over their head in a car to block the glare, and dropped it on their face and chipped a tooth and it was a recordable! So don't worry, I was being safe! (=

Anyway, here is the new needle case! Thanks for making it, Natasha!



I am thinking of using that pretty blue and the dots as inspiration for painting my craft room. I got a bunch of books about painting murals, cuz I was also thinking of trying my hand at some kind of tromp loeil design in there, but dots are way less scary, and could actually happen in this lifetime. Any thoughts?

Monday, August 6, 2007

Painting and Moving

I've been busy!!! We've eaten nothing but pizza and have been running on about 5 hours of sleep per night for the past 5 days, but we've moved into our house!!! Several walls are painted, and everything (except goodwill stuff) is out of the apartment! Here are some pictures of the chaos.

Paint colors for the kitchen/entry way and bedroom


Paint colors for the basement


Basement


Kitchen


Bedroom


I love it!!! Now I just have to finish unpacking.....